The Tenley scoot

This is Tenley's new hardwood floor crawl, or scoot rather.

T’s party!

Ever since Hannah Gray met Tenley, she has referred to her as “b” for baby. The frequency of it has definitely decreased as now Hannah Gray can actually say Tenley, even though it comes out “Tenwee gurl”. So it seemed fitting to have Tenley’s first birthday theme be of a bee.

We had a great time celebrating our sweet little one, here are some pictures from the party.

Tenley reached for her cupcakes with both arms, then would stop short of touching it as though she couldn’t reach it. Then she would begin to go face first until the cheers of the guests would stop her. She’d look up and wait and then repeat. The whole process for her to really dig in took like 20 minutes… classic Tenley! :)

Tenley turns 1!!!

I can hardly believe my baby is one already! This year has gone by so fast, I can’t even begin to express it. I have heard that’s usually the case with life after the first child. However, I think throwing in a cross country move and Ethan being gone so much definitely added to it. It seems like by the time we settled in here (T celebrated her 3rd month bday the week we arrived), she was 6 months old already.

Many of you that read our blog don’t get to encounter Tenley on a daily or regular basis, so I thought I’d share some things about our sweet girl.

She’s an absolute joy. There’s just this spirit of sweet joy and innocence. I am not kidding when I say I received my first responsive smile from her when she was three weeks old and she hasn’t stopped since. She’s quick to engage with just about anyone that will catch her eye. Her giggles come easily and her smile draws you in through her eyes as her “words” melt your heart.

She’s patient. Period. She will sit quietly and contentedly until she’s decided that she’s had enough. Then she will make herself heard.

She’s probably the most laid back, easy going little kid. She just began army crawling around her 11 month bday. I was getting a little anxious for her to begin, but it’s in classic Tenley style. She rolled over later than her sister at 5 months old, as though she proved to all of us she could, but just didn’t really care to. She was quite content to sit and observe on her own. Her crawling came in the same fashion. She’s curious and gentle and so far most responsive to the gentle “no’s” of mom and dad.

She ADORES her older sister. The two of them have an incredible relationship and I pray that it continues this way forever. Hannah Gray was smitten with her from the first moment they met and it’s been that way ever since. Tenley looks at Hannah Gray with only the fondest of eyes.  It melts me to hear them interact and laugh with each other. They have a special relationship already and we are so thankful for it.

We are so thankful for our precious little girl and that we have already been able to treasure her for this first year. We look forward to many, many more and pray many blessings upon our littlest one!

Series of 1 year pictures

sister love

wearing her present from Mommy and Daddy

Week with Mimi and Grandpa

My parents came out two weekends ago to spend a week with us that included Tenley- gir’s first bday, her party and Easter. What a great week it was! We did so many fun things around the city. We did the duck tour (with the quacking and all), Deception’s Pass, my parents did Woodinville’s wine tastings, Ethan and Dad did Boeing’s factory tour, we ate at some AMAZING restaurants, celebrated Good Friday and then Easter at Quest field. We had such a great time with them and they were both a tremendous help in getting ready for the party. The flew in in time to even take the girls for the first weekend of their trip so that Ethan and I could attend the Weekend to Remember put on by Family Life Ministries. What an amazing weekend that was and we would both HIGHLY recommend it to anyone interested (of even if you weren’t, we’d still recommend it ;) ).

Here are some pictures of the week…

All of the above are from our afternoon at Deception’s pass.

Picture with Mom and Dad and the girls on Tenley’s birthday

Excited to go to the beach near our house

The view of the Olympic Mountains from the beach

Tenley didn’t like this so much…

Okay, this is actually a funny story. I had a Teddy Ruxman growing up that I LOVED! I was pretty devastated by his demise when he was vandalized at my brother’s school where he was being used for an art project. So 20 years later, my mom found one and surprised me with it when they visited! Here is Hannah Gray checking him out.

the girls playing at home

Mom at the original Starbucks at Pike’s Place. We spent a good bit of time getting yummy food and beautiful flowers at Pike’s.

Tenley’s bday morning

“wiggle-waggle!!” as she wagged her pigtails

At Pike’s Place with the “cary balloon man”, but she loves the balloon animals nonetheless.

Contributing to the gum wall in Pike’s Place.

Few Random Pictures

I came across a few pictures that I thought I had posted, then couldn’t find so I decided to post them anyway. So they may or may not be redundant. Oh well…

Our sweet friends Josh and Heather made Hannah Gray this shirt after she broke her arm. They said they figured she needed this tshirt after 3 ER visits in 2 months…

Hannah Gray beginning to pretend. She grabbed my pot holders out of the drawer in the kitchen and found her tea kettle and pretended it was hot and poured me a cup of “tea, ice cream tea” with a warning of “be careful momma, don’t burn yourself”.

cooling off my tea for me

sweet Tenley girl’s 10 month picture. She wasn’t feeling so hot if you couldn’t tell :(